Picture yourself on a boat on a river...or alternatively in a car on the M5, with 2 fabulous food bloggers (Butterfingers & FoodandtheFab), heading towards an evening of unknown decadence. You have the menu in front of you. It seems basic but you know there is going to be more. Often words are not enough to give you an idea of what to expect and having a air of mystery behind an event can lend to words what nothing else can, almost tangible excitement for the potential of what lies ahead.
If you would love to have time to go to such an event, but still want to update your websites, the free content for websites from Article Writing Services will allow you to go have fun.
Inevitably the journey is not an easy one, home time traffic and the general rat's nest type city planning that is the Southern Suburbs means that we arrive at our destination a little after previously thought time but still in time and ready for action. First though...parking.
For me the best part of these evening, when bloggers or tweeters get together is that we are never bored in each other's company. We "chat" to each other all day but never lack for things to discuss when face to face and so started our Silwood & Le Creuset evening. Many of us had already met, some had only ever tweeted and 1 or 2 were names known only from their comments on our blogs. The other fun part about these events is that the magpie in me is satisfied, goodie bags, no matter how much loot they contain are always a welcome site. Boy were we spoiled with the ones that waited of us at our workstations. Le Creuset really pulled out all the stops and I love every piece I was given.
We were kept on our toes from beginning to end, with our lovely instructor Gary showing us some nifty tricks along the way, like how to finely chop and onion, or crush garlic with your knife. For me the most valuable lesson was that of time management. How many of us cook each course as far as possible before starting the next one? Not this time, the stuffing for the chicken was cooking while the whisky for the custard was going and all the while some peppers and tomatoes were roasting and each of those belong to their own delicious course. His handy helpers John and Jess made sure we had what ever we needed (where can I buy some of those?) when we needed it and helped make sure we had nice clean stations to work from (no really, is it wrong to keep culinary students in your pantry?)
The other lesson I learned on the night is how entertaining MattAllison can be when you give him a couple of empty glasses of wine on an empty stomach (and on that note, Gillian & Deon from Le Creuset, made sure all our glasses were never empty - even my lemonade).
From roasted red pepper and tomato soup to, what most of us ACTUALLY had for dinner, Bread & Butter Cappuccinos. Poaching stuffed chicken (beating it to a pulp before hand). We had some great food forming out of what seemed like a little bit of chaos. To be honest though, I prefer a little chaos in my kitchen, some how the food tastes better :)
Thank you for a wonderful evening. To Le Creuset for inviting me and for the wonderful gifts (2 large ramekins, a 10cm mini cocote and 19cm rectangular dish), Silwood for hosting us and teaching us a thing or 2 and to the other bloggers who really made it a fun and enjoyable night.
The recipes will be popping up now and again as I remake them at home to share with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment